


Soon I'll Come Around

by Loudest_Voice



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2020-01-10 19:42:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18414578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loudest_Voice/pseuds/Loudest_Voice
Summary: Minato survives and goes on to be a great Hokage who uses every last resource at Konoha's disposal. Including the Kyuubi.My attempt at a superpowered Naruto AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to A Mirror in Two Parts.

It's not so bad to be despised.

Or it's not so bad, if you can defend yourself. Which Naruto can. He is Yondaime-sama's son, Konoha's greatest weapon, the strongest jinchuriki, blah, blah, blah, although some of that has to be propaganda.

That's fine too. Propaganda is truer than the truth, since it's easier to believe. Naruto heard his father say that once, and his father is a genius. Or so they say. That might be propaganda too.

“Let me see if I follow you,” says Naruto, looking up at his father. “After years of keeping me locked up like some kind of fairy tale dragon, you're sending me to the Academy.”

“That's not what I said.” The Yondaime doesn't so much as glance up from the scroll he's reading. “And I don't have time to indulge your attempt at wit.”

“No, _Dad,_ I'm actually fucking serious.”

“Don't be crass.”

Naruto was essentially raised by ANBU. What does the Yondaime expect him to sound like?

“Aren't I supposed to be an unstable nuke? On the verge of exploding, thirsting for blood, waiting for an excuse to burn the land and salt the earth?”

The Yondaime finally fixed unimpressed blue eyes on him. “You've been spending too much time with Jiraiya.”

Naruto hasn't seen the Sannin in seven months. “I'm being serious.”

His whole purpose is to be a war deterrent. To make enemy villages envision him as a vicious beast. That's supposed to scare the world into. . . not fighting? Naruto's not sure how that's supposed to work, but smarter people than him have assured him that it totally does. And that he needs to remain isolated in his father's tower, the Hokage's tower, training and occasionally flashing his figurative chakra dick around.  

ANBU can be rather colorful.

And now he has to play at being a genin chasing lost cats and sad old men cheating on their wives? “This doesn't make any sense.”

“It makes perfect sense. You need to integrate into our ranks.”

“Then why not make me a jounin?” asks Naruto. “I'll be right in the ranks, and doing missions that actually matter. The other villages would see my power and--”

“This isn't about the other villages,” interrupts the Yondaime. “It's about Konoha and how little they trust you.”

“The shinobi trust me!”

“No, the handful of ANBU I've assigned to train and protect you trust you.”

“And so what? I won't need more in a war.” If there ever is one. Naruto's beginning to suspect there isn't such a thing as war; that it's all an excuse to keep him and the beast living in him away from the world.

“You will if you ever want to be in a leadership position,” says the Yondaime. “You can't lead an army full of soldiers who think you're a mad beast.”

“I thought you said you didn't want me to be the next Hokage.”

“And I stand by that.” The Yondaime sets the scroll aside and runs a hand through his messy blond hair. “Nepotism and illogical clan loyalties have never caused this village anything but grief. If my son follows me as Hokage, then all I would accomplish is adding another clan into the stupid Senju-Uchiha feud. But there are quite a few steps between random villager and Kage, and even more levels of leadership and responsibility.”

Naruto stares at his father in the eyes until the man looks away, obviously defeated. The ANBU talk about him like he's a god on Earth, but Naruto's only ever seen a man who looks a decade younger than he claims to be, though he can't deny that he's never faced a more difficult opponent in spars.

“And you think of this now?” asks Naruto. “I could've started going to school with other kids years ago.” Since he learned how to suppress the Kyuubi during episodes of emotional distress, and perhaps earlier than that. Certainly while the Yondaime had the thing sealed so severely that Naruto could barely access his own chakra, much less the bijuu's.

“Yes, I'm thinking of it now,” says the Yondaime. “You're starting at the Academy on Monday. Make some damned friends.”

* * *

 

Well, an order from Yondaime-sama is an order from Yondaime-sama. Or so the ANBU mutter when they get orders that they don't particularly feel like following. Naruto plays the mantra over and over in his head as he is introduced to Iruka-sensei's pre-genin class. That, and his father's curt order to “make some damned friends”.

How the hell is he supposed to do that?

“Go on, Naruto-kun,” says Iruka-sensei, after he and the class stare at each other in careful silence for a good ten seconds or so.

Naruto's read enough manga and books and such to know that ten seconds of silence is akin to an eternity in social situations.

“There's an empty seat in the corner,” says Iruka-sensei. “Next to Sakura-san - the girl with pink hair.”

The girl with pink hair tenses up at the sound of her name, then glances between the empty space next to her and Naruto with obvious trepidation. Naruto considers the situation for a moment, then decides to walk forward and take the seat, though as far away from the girl as he can without slipping off the bench. That's a decent enough middle ground between standing up for himself and not terrorizing the silly girl. At least as big a middle ground as there is between random villager and Hokage.

Iruka-sensei goes on with his lectures. Naruto listens long enough to ascertain that it’s a spiel about hand signals that he's known for as long as he can remember. It's worrying. Vaguely. These kids don't know all that basic shit already? Shouldn't they be trying to manipulate their chakra without seals by now?

Not his problem. He starts looking around discreetly. Who is the best target to befriend?

The Yondaime had given him zero instructions about that. Is he supposed to get a genuine friend, like the ones in manga that will help a guy out when he has to commit seppuku? Naruto will never commit seppuku, as it is dumb samurai bullshit, but he grasps that the whole thing is about true love. Or something.

The pink-haired girl has either relaxed, or forgotten all about him in her haste to copy down every insipid word that spills from Iruka-sensei's mouth. She seems like a rule follower. If he becomes her friend, Naruto might have to behead her during her seppuku.

The prospect is unappealing.

The Yondaime probably meant a political “friend”. Someone that might support him in the middle of a financial or military intra-village argument in exchange for future favors. In other words: a clan brat.

Of course. There's a clan brat from practically every clan in Konoha in this class.

There's the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. The blonde one, presumably the Ino-part of the trio, is seated away from the other two. But they're probably a unit already, with their private dynamic and always backing each other up. Naruto's social skills are not quite up to the challenge of inserting himself into a pre-existing group.

His gaze moves on to the boy with a puppy on his head who looks like he's never once cut his scruffy, dark hair. The Inuzuka are all about their nindogs, and animals hate Naruto. Besides, the Inuzuka clan is one of the youngest in Konoha. Though not nonexistent, their political clout is not impressive.

The Aburame kid? It's gonna be hard to observe facial expressions on someone wearing dark sunglasses. Rumor is that the bugs eat the Aburame's eyes, so it might not matter if the guy gets comfortable enough to take off his glasses in front of Naruto.

The eye thing sounds like bullshit, though. Naruto's met a couple of Aburame clansmen, and while they always wore those glasses, they also interacted with the world as sighted people did, looking towards sounds and such.

Still. Naruto doesn't like sunglasses at night. They look stupid as hell.

That leaves the Uchiha and the Hyuuga.

He is already friends, of a sort, with an Uchiha: Itachi, who joined ANBU recently. Somehow, he has already been assigned to Naruto’s training/guarding detail. Naruto likes sparring with Itachi. His genjutsu are as mean as a sudden muscle cramp in the middle of the night. He's the only person to have beaten Naruto in a spar (besides the Yondaime and Jiraiya) in almost a year. Their count is four-to-five in Itachi's favor.

Best of all, Itachi isn't douchey about it. He doesn't even seem to enjoy sparring in the first place, and instead insists on teaching Naruto _Go_ strategies. It's a little annoying.

Naruto glances at the boy with the Uchiha shirt. He even looks like Itachi. But that's more reason to ignore him. Naruto doesn't need a redundancy in his friends circle. Besides, the Uchiha aren't exactly popular. Konoha is still background-blaming them for the last time that the Kyuubi went batshit and tried to nuke the village, and even if they weren't, the Uchiha are _cops_. Everyone hates the police.

Which narrows it down to the Hyuuga girl.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the thing is, I never meant for this to be a one-shot, but I posted it right before my hiatus, did not notice the mistake, and then promptly forgot about the whole thing. It is a sequel to [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2644646/chapters/5905934), which was . . . well, this won't make sense if you don't read that, which barely makes sense as is.
> 
> Thanks to [luvsanime02](http://archiveofourown.org/users/luvsanime02/pseuds/luvsanime02) for beta reading this

“Did you go to school?” Naruto asks Kakashi, a week into his mission (or whatever it is).

“Not for long.”

“‘Cause you were so smart?” That's Kakashi's thing, right? Besides being an Uchiha bastard who has mastered the Sharingan.

“No, because there was a war,” says Kakashi. “Trust me, I'd have much rather been bored at school than drowning in blood.”

“You're so dramatic,” says Naruto. 

Kakashi glances at him briefly before going back to the enemy scroll he's supposed to be decoding. “What are you doing here?”

‘Here’ being an ANBU station on Konoha's Eastern border, between the Uchiha and Hyuuga districts. That's why it's ANBU's favorite Intel center, even though it's an old dojo-style building with more windows than walls. It's nearly impossible to sneak into the place without alerting Konoha's Eyes, and both Clans are loyal to the Fourth (though fuck if Naruto can figure out how his dad had pulled that off). All the ninja clans like Namikaze Minato, despite him not being connected to any clan. Not officially, anyway.

Naruto had come out of sheer boredom, not expecting to find anyone in particular. “I finished my homework.” 

“Then go make friends,” says Kakashi. 

“But all the Academy kids are boring,” whines Naruto, sliding closer to Kakashi.

“Most people are boring,” says Kakashi. “Get used to it. You're probably boring to most people too.”

Whatever code he's breaking, it's in a language Naruto doesn't know. He grunts.

“I wouldn't let you see it that easily if you could read it,” says Kakashi.

“What does it say?” asks Naruto, squinting at the symbols. “Maybe I can help.”

“As if,” says Kakashi. “You aren't any good at subterfuge. Or literature. As I said, go and hang out with the other Academy kids.”

Naruto grunts harder. He considers arguing about the scroll. Sure, he's probably not as good at code-breaking as Kakashi - who is? - but he's not a gibbering moron either. He's a politician's son. There's only so many brown-nosers and/or sycophants a person can observe at social functions before learning some trivia that might come in handy in deciphering coded messages. 

But he does have a mission, unpleasant and boring as it might be.

He's been trying really hard to befriend Hinata Hyuuga. Really. He's tried sitting with her. He's offered to carry her backpack. He very pointedly gave her every opportunity to cheat off him during their last written test. He's even tried giving her a few taijutsu pointers. It's a bit shocking how choppy her Gentle Fist technique is considering she's the prospective clan heir. Then he'd considered that he might be injuring her clan brat pride by making it so obvious that he could see all her weaknesses. So he'd tried throwing a match.

That had not worked either. 

“You're pretty popular,” Naruto says to Kakashi, carefully.

“Where?” says Kakashi, incredulously. 

“Everyone knows who you are.”

“That makes me infamous, not popular.”

Naruto opens his mouth to argue, but realizes that Kakashi has a point. People respect his skills and listen when he talks, but he's not sure that Kakashi has “friends”. Obito and Rin are different. They're _teammates_ , emphasis very thoroughly meant. The way ANBU talks about genin teammates, they're closer to family. Naruto has never had teammates, but he has a father. 

He wouldn't say that the Fourth _likes_ him. Loves him, yes. Probably. But the Fourth wouldn't have chosen him as a son. Sort of like how people can't choose their genin teammates.

“Okay, so who _is_ popular?” 

“Your father,” says Kakashi.

Naruto groans. 

“He is,” insists Kakashi.

“I know that, but I can't be like him!” Naruto doubts he could even fake it. It's not like he knows why people just accept the Yondaime's pseudo-gentle refusals, sometimes convinced that it was actually their idea that they shouldn't get what they asked for. His working theory is that the title of Hokage is so profoundly powerful that it's brainwashed the entire village.

Kakashi makes a breakthrough while Naruto is spiraling about his father's unfair charisma, and disappears before Naruto can ask more questions. That's fine. If Kakashi never even went to the Academy, then he won't be too useful.

What Naruto needs is insight from someone who's been in the Academy recently. He frowns to himself. Semi-recently, at least. He goes to the youngest person he knows.

"Let me make sure I follow you," Itachi says, two days later. "You're asking me for advice about popularity. Me."

"Uh, yeah," says Naruto. "Do you see anyone else here?"

"I'm not popular," says Itachi, unaffected by (or perhaps just ignoring) Naruto's shitty tone.

"Fine, why not?" insists Naruto. "I'll just do the opposite of whatever you did at the Academy."

"Social interactions are complicated and idiosyncratic," says Itachi, his dark eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Doing the opposite of what I did, if you can sort out what that was in the first place, might just make you a different sort of pariah."

Naruto slides down the tree and sits on the branch right next to him, eager to hear what Itachi has to say. He's one of the smartest people in the village, allegedly, and certainly one of the strongest. There are even rumors that the Yondaime wants him as a successor, which Naruto doubts since it would go against his dad's ambitions of turning Konoha into a meritocracy if he puts a Uchiha in the Hokage's Tower. But whatever. Naruto doesn't actually care one way or the other.

"You were at the Academy recently, right?" 

"Kind of," says Itachi. "I technically graduated at twelve, but I was already training with the Yondaime and going on missions with ANBU."

"Yes, you're very special," says Naruto. All ANBU who'd been allowed to train with him are. 

"If you want to be popular, you should start by not being so condescending," says Itachi. 

"Already, you're giving me great advice."

Itachi's lips quirk a bit, which Naruto decides is a great victory. The bastard isn't exactly expressive.

"Come on, Crow," he says, "hit me with your social observations regarding the nature of popularity." 

"Don't sound like a textbook either," says Itachi. "You think it's gotten me points for charisma?"

"These truth bombs are blowing my mind."

"But jokes are good," says Itachi, with a little snort. "You sound like. . . but he's also unusually handsome."

"Huh," says Naruto, wondering who 'he' is. An actual popular person? "Am I unusually handsome?"

Itachi fixes Naruto with his dark Uchiha eyes, earnestly appraising his looks. "I don't think so," he says. 

This is why Naruto likes the dude. "Are _you_ unusually handsome?"

"I look like any random Uchiha," says Itachi, shrugging, "so I doubt it."

"Well, I read in a book that the hottest people are the most average-looking people," says Naruto, smugly. He has empirical data on his side. From somewhere. 

"That doesn't make any sense," says Itachi. "Attractive people stand out. That's what being attractive _means_. What book said that?"

"I don't remember the specific source," admits Naruto, looking Itachi up and down with undisguised interest. "I think you're very pretty with your eyelashes, and your thick hair, and your cute little nose. And you're fit, obviously, but so are most ninja. Which is average in our population, which science says is hot."

"My eyelashes," says Itachi, with an air of incredulity. 

"Eyelashes are very important according to romance novels," says Naruto.

"Right," says Itachi, skeptically. "Even if I am. . . as you say, very pretty, that's of no help to you. We look nothing alike."

"True," says Naruto, scratching at his temple. 

He'd been half-teasing Itachi - not so much about finding him pretty, but by telling him so in the most saccharine way possible. Most ANBU would be offended at the implication, but Itachi seems unfazed, if doubtful. Regardless, it is true that Naruto probably isn't particularly attractive, at least not enough to make up for being the weird new kid who is also the village jinchuuriki. 

"So I'm not hot enough to be sexy-popular," says Naruto. "What are my other options? Humor, you said?" 

"There's really no overarching logic to social interactions," says Itachi, shrugging.

"That kind of defeatist talk is unbefitting of a Konoha ninja," declares Naruto.

"How is it defeatist?" asks Itachi.

"I refuse to let us give up," insists Naruto.

"I'm not giving up on anything," says Itachi 

"Our mission is to become popular!"

" _Our_ mission?"

"Come on," says Naruto, ignoring Itachi's pointed question, "to the secret libraries to research social psychology."

"You know, I'm actually busy," complains Itachi.

"Right," says Naruto, grabbing Itachi's arm and pulling him to stand up with Naruto. "That's why you're up in a tree, all by yourself."

"I'm meditating," says Itachi, primly. 

But he follows Naruto down the tree, betraying his interest in the subject.


End file.
